Blended learning and e-learning support within the Cornerstone

Maths Project

Alison Clark-Wilson a.clark-wilson@ioe.ac.uk

Plenary overview

The aims and objectives of Cornerstone Maths The professional development content Design and evaluation of professional development at scale Ongoing findings Future directions for our research

Cornerstone Maths Collaboration of SRI International (USA) & the London Knowledge

Lab (UK), funded by the Li Ka Shing Foundation.

Design-based research approach in England derived from extensive work in the USA (over 15+ years) for middle school mathematics.

Acknowledgements England (UCL Institute of Education)

Celia Hoyles Richard Noss Teresa Smart Bola Abiloye Eileen Coan James O’Toole

US (Stanford Research International)

Jeremy Roschelle Phil Vahey Ken Rafanan Jenifer Knudsen

Design principles: the curriculum units Cornerstone Maths exploits the dynamic and visual nature of digital technology to stimulate mathematical thinking by:

focusing on the ‘big mathematical ideas’ in middle schools mathematics (11-14 years) making links between key representations embedding activities within realistic contexts providing an environment for students to explore and solve problems within guided structured activities

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Research foundations design of digital mathematics resources (Hoyles and Lagrange 2009; Hegedus and Roschelle 2013; Mavrikis, Noss, Hoyles, and Geraniou 2012) a combination of bespoke software, lesson activities and teachers’ professional development is needed to support wider student access to technology in mathematics (Hoyles et al 2013, Clark-Wilson et al 2014) transformative change in teaching practices takes time (Even & Loewenberg Ball, 2009)

The national context new National Curriculum (Dept. of Ed. 2013). increased school autonomy. some funded professional development support for mathematics - National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics. open market for school improvement services. technology enhanced learning is just one of many priorities that schools could choose to address.

‘62. Carefully chosen practical activities and resources, including computer software, have two principal benefits: they aid conceptual understanding and make learning more interesting. Too few of the schools used these resources well.’ Office for Standards in Education (2012)

258 teachers in 124 schools across England (over 7000 students). 6 Cornerstone Maths networks expanding group of PD ‘multipliers’ 8

The geographical reach

But scaling is not just ‘more schools’… Products:

More schools More professional networks Improved student attainment More whole departments involved Wider use of materials (more classes within schools) More teachers within departments involved

Processes: web based curricular activity system teacher community localised PD offer (school clusters becoming networks) school devised evaluation approaches school based PD offer embedding in local schemes of work development of multipliers

Project phases Planning Phase 1 (Jun-Jul 2011) Phase 1 (Jul – Dec 2011) – Pilot phase (unit 1) Phase 2 (Jan – Jul 2012) – Pilot phase (unit 2) Phase 3 (Dec 2012 – Nov 2014) – Ongoing (re)design cycles with ‘Design’ schools alongside scaling to 100+ ‘Focus’ schools Sustainability beyond Dec 2014… …and scaling nationally…

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The vision

The Cornerstone Maths units Unit 1 – linear functions

Unit 2 – geometric similarity

Unit 3 – patterns and expressions

The curriculum units

Unit of work (2-4 weeks) Teacher guide

Explicit mathematical progression, technical support, pedagogic guidance

Students’ individual work

(workbook)

Students’ collaborative work

(f2f and online)

embedded web-based software

Linear functions

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Context: Developing games for mobile phones: using mathematics to analyse and create simulated motion games.

Design principles: • dynamic simulation and linking between

representations • drive the simulation from the graph or the

function • show/hide representations, as appropriate

Big mathematical ideas • Coordinating algebraic, graphical, and tabular

representations

• y= mx+c as a model of constant velocity motion – the meaning of m and c in the motion context

• Velocity as speed with direction and average velocity

Context: Let’s work on a game with robots. We need to set up the mathematics to make our robots move at different speeds.

However

We have many years of research evidence that highlights how dynamic maths technology in the students’ hands brings about new challenges for teachers…

the mathematics is different… the pedagogy is different…

(see Hoyles and Lagrange 2009, Clark-Wilson, Robutti and Sinclair 2014)

Design principles: the professional development

no ‘one size fits all’ – teachers are not a homogeneous group. sustained – initial one-day face-to-face followed by weeks/months/years… blended – face to face, synchronous and asynchronous online, ongoing online communication. teachers adopt different roles.

The PD process

Before PD • pre task – getting

instrumented • online support for

pre-task (video walkthrough of software)

• optional webinar support

Face to face PD (one-day) • hands-on access

to the technology • deep discussion of

the mathematics • planning for

classroom adaptation

• introduction to online community

During teaching • some classroom

support visits • asynchronous

forum discussions • other teachers’

resources • webinars on key

themes • online surveys

After teaching • webinars on key

themes • online survey

(evaluation) • [..more active

involvement in community]

e-Learning elements

completing a pre-PD task (email and online) ‘joining’ the (online) project community participating in the (online) project community participating in webinars responding to online project surveys

pre-PD task (email and online)

Task designed to give teachers a ‘pre-PD’ experience with the software Sent to the teachers 2 weeks in advance Access to a narrated video walkthrough (via DropBox) Optional webinar arranged – no teachers attended this!

the online community

joining the community making a first post to the forum accessing resources contributing resources beginning a forum thread

project webinars

project online surveys

Was the CM curriculum unit implemented in the classroom? How was the CM curriculum unit implemented? (choice of class? choice of technology? pathway through the unit?) Were teachers positive about the materials? Would they use them again? How did teachers engage with the project community?

Findings: face-to-face PD

Teachers evaluate the face-to-face professional development event very highly in terms of their ‘preparedness to teach’ the curriculum units. Teachers ask for further support on: formative assessment (58%), adapting for Special Educational Needs (57%) (n=166). Only 8% ask for webinars!

I'd love all the extra reading, webinars, video's, etc, however in all honestly with a full timetable I won't have the time to dedicate to reading and researching, so any help/support needs to be something I can do in less than 2

minutes.

Findings: Online community

Despite regular posts and uploads by the LKL Project Team, the NCETM Community did not become the vibrant ‘teacher-owned’ online Community as was originally hoped. 57% of teachers reported that they had accessed the NCETM Community in relation to their teaching of Unit 1 (n=110).

Findings: Online community Teachers’ reported uses of the NCETM Community % of teachers

(n=63)

To keep up to date with the project news 52%

To read questions or comments by the community 83%

To post questions or comments to the community 22%

To access the electronic version of the Teacher Guide 38%

To access the electronic version of the Pupil Workbook 37%

To upload resources for other teachers to access 3%

To download resources created by other teachers 11%

Findings: Online community

The 49 teachers who did not report any use of the NCETM Community cited the most common reasons as:

not enough time; forgetting that it existed; not feeling the need to; not encountering any problems.

Findings: Project webinars

very limited take-up of the webinars that were organised by the LKL Project Team to respond to teachers’ requests for more support on differentiating the Unit for pupils with SEN/EAL and ideas to support formative assessment. Only 22 teachers participated in at least one webinar.

Ongoing tensions Online forum

Increases participation and collaboration BUT the temporary nature of the project limits the time frame for its usefulness

Webinars Participating teachers evaluate this highly BUT very few teachers attend

face to face community

An essential element at the beginning BUT how to sustain over time

Online portal

Used by some teachers in a pragmatic way BUT how to develop a more contributory/critical use

As a frequent social network and forum user, I really should have made better use of the community - even to the point of encouraging others to use it. Perhaps I may have tried more if I thought it was

EXPECTED of me rather than REQUESTED? (I need a good 'rocket' for things like that!) If this were the

case, maybe others would have made better use too

Future research

The impact of the various blended learning approaches adopted within different Cornerstone Maths networks Deeper research into the nature of teachers’ development of knowledge – and the impact of this on evolving classroom practices Continued research into the design of the PD ‘toolkit’ – in collaboration with multipliers.

Nuffield Foundation Project

A 2-year project from Dec 2014 that aims to research the impact on key stage 3 teachers mathematical knowledge and practices – as they engage with the CM units of work.

7 new networks (pairs of teachers from 15 schools) will be established schools will be recruited in spring 2015 will produce a PD toolkit that will be disseminated nationally

Project aims The project will use teachers’ classroom experiences of the Cornerstone Maths curriculum units to learn more about:

how teachers develop a deeper understanding of the curriculum topics to enable them to teach for ‘mastery’; how teachers develop their classroom pedagogies when the students are more active in the dynamic exploration of the underlying maths.

References Clark-Wilson, Alison, Hoyles, Celia, Noss, Richard, Vahey, Phil, & Roschelle, Jeremy. (2015).

Scaling a technology-based innovation: Windows on the evolution of mathematics teachers' practices. ZDM Mathematics Education, 47(1). doi: 10.1007/s11858-014-0635-6

Clark-Wilson, Alison, Robutti, Ornella, & Sinclair, Nathalie. (2014). The Mathematics Teacher in the Digital Era: An International Perspective on Technology Focused Professional Development (Vol. 2). Dordrecht: Springer.

Department of Education. (2013). National Curriculum in England. Mathematics programmes of study: key stage 3. London: Department of Education.

Hoyles, Celia, & Lagrange, Jean Baptiste (Eds.). (2009). Mathematics Education and Technology - Rethinking the Terrain: The 17th ICMI Study. Berlin: Springer.

Even, Ruhama, & Loewenberg Ball, Deborah (Eds.). (2009). The professional education and development of teachers of mathematics: The 11th ICMI study. Berlin: Springer.

Mavrikis, Manolis, Noss, Richard, Hoyles, Celia, & Geraniou, Eirini. (2012). Sowing the seeds of algebraic generalisation: designing epistemic affordances for an intelligent microworld Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 29(1), 68-84.

Office for Standards in Education. (2012). Mathematics: Made to measure. London: Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Blended learning and e-learning support within the Cornerstone

Maths Project

Alison Clark-Wilson a.clark-wilson@ioe.ac.uk